Radio Access Network Patents: Top Companies & Filing Trends 2026
Radio Access Network Patents: Who Leads and Where Filing Is Heading
52.2% concentration. The five leading assignees account for 190,344 of the 364,514 records in scope — over half the field sits with a handful of filers. Filings ran from 1,176 in 2017 to a peak of 2,151 in 2022, then declined to 1,391 by 2024, a 31% drop across that three-year span. 2025 and 2026 figures (132 in the partial final year) are still incomplete due to publication lag and will rise as later filings publish.
- 1QUALCOMM INC15.4%
- 2TELEFONAKTIEBOLAGET LM ERICSSON (PUBL)12.9%
- 3HUAWEI TECH CO LTD8.7%
- 4SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO LTD8.2%
- 5LG ELECTRONICS INC6.9%
See the full radio access networks patent landscape analysis in Eureka
- The complete ranking, not just the top five
- Every IPC branch with its share of the corpus
- The most-cited records, and where claim space is still thin
Common questions on Radio Access Networks patents
Who holds the most Radio Access Networks patents?
The assignee ranking behind this dataset lists 100 companies, and the field is heavily concentrated at the top: the five leading assignees together hold 190,344 of the 364,514 records in scope, or 52.2%. The leading assignee alone holds 56,171 records, well ahead of fifth place at 25,210 and tenth place at 6,368. This concentration reflects large telecom equipment vendors, handset makers and chipset suppliers that have filed continuously across multiple jurisdictions rather than a single breakthrough filer.
Is Radio Access Networks patent filing activity growing or slowing?
Filings rose from 1,176 in 2017 to a peak of 2,151 in 2022, then fell to 1,391 by 2024, a 31% decline over that three-year span. 2024 is the most recent year that can be treated as complete; 2025 and 2026 figures are still low because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so those years will continue to fill in. Taken together, the evidence points to a real pullback from the 2022 peak rather than a market that has stopped filing altogether.
What technology areas dominate Radio Access Networks patent classifications?
H04W (wireless communication networks) is the dominant IPC subclass, appearing on 4.5% of the 364,514 records, more than double the next most common subclass, H04L (digital information transmission) at 2.1%. H04B (transmission, general) follows at 0.8%. Subclasses like multiplex communication, switching and selecting, telephonic communication and AI-based computing each sit at 0.1-0.2% of records, meaning they typically appear as secondary elements within a broader RAN filing rather than as the primary claimed subject.
Disclaimer. This analysis is based on Patsnap Eureka data drawn from a limited snapshot of global patent records and is provided for general information and reference only. Patent data carries inherent limitations — recent filings are under-counted because of publication lag, counts may be on a record or family basis, classification and applicant-name data may contain errors or duplicates, and the underlying search query defines the scope shown — so the analysis may be incomplete or inaccurate and may not reflect the full technology landscape.
Nothing here is an exhaustive prior-art, novelty, freedom-to-operate or validity search, nor does it constitute legal, financial or professional advice, and it should not be relied upon as such. Verify independently and review with qualified patent and legal professionals before acting on it.
Method: Filing trend and technology composition. Derived from a Patsnap search on Radio Access Networks Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-08-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish. Every share divides by all records in scope. Data: Patsnap Eureka. See the full landscape report.